Political Cartoonist

A Political Cartoonist is a type of Cartoonist that specializes in cartooning political events and government officials. Almost every Newspaper has at least one of these entertaining drawings, they are usually found in the section containing politics. These Cartoons bring a bit of Humor to an otherwise dull article. Political Cartoons have been around since the late 1700's, originating in the United States as campaigning ads, within 100 years these drawings could be found all over the world. These early versions of the drawings were often aimed at persuading people to vote for whoever wasn't being insulted. Often times the drawings would be quite violent and vulgar, in order to drum up support for American Independence, Benjamin Franklin drew the famous "Join or Die" cartoon. It depicts a snake cut into multiple pieces, each piece was labeled with the name of one of the colonies, this image became very popular and would have been seen quite frequently.

In the Presidential Campaign of 1800 there were many slanderous drawings of both candidates, Thomas Jefferson's supporters claimed that John Adams wanted his son to be married to the King of England's daughter, while John Adams supporters said that Jefferson was a "a mean-spirited, low lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father". During the election of 1884 one of the most famous Political Cartoons in history was drawn, it displayed a baby crying "Ma, Ma, where is my pa? Gone to the White House?". There were rumors that Grover Cleaveland fathered an illegitimate child and this was advertised by this cartoon. During the 1850-1860 the cartoons began to voice the debate over slavery and Secession, when the South Seceded in 1860 in northern controlled media depicted Jefferson Davis being hung or killed. The War of Northern Agression changed the face of Political Cartoons, it changed from a free, independent business, to a heavily government controlled propaganda tool. WWI